How Chapelstreet Church turned donor data into discipleship moments

AT A GLANCE

Church: Chapelstreet Church | Geneva, IL
Type: Protestant | 5,000+ attendees
Solutions used: Pushpay Giving + MortarStone
Integration live since: June 2022
Implementation time: 4 weeks

KEY RESULTS:

• First-time giver growth: 12.5% year-over-year (goal was 10%)
• Pastoral engagement: Every first, second, and third-time giver receives a personal touchpoint automatically
• Budget forecasting: Actual giving data replaced historical averages during a period of real organizational uncertainty
• Donor visibility: Individual-level insight across 5,000+ attendees, where only aggregate reports existed before

“What this has allowed us to do is create a donor engagement plan and implement it, not just collect data.” — Abe Doncel, Executive Pastor

The challenge

When Abe Doncel joined Chapelstreet Church as Executive Pastor of Ministry Operations six years ago, he inherited a problem most growing churches know well: plenty of giving data, and no clear path to use it for ministry.

Pushpay captured every transaction. What happened after the gift was largely invisible.

“Pushpay told us what was given, when, and by who,” Abe explains. “That’s helpful for financial reports. But I was a firm believer that generosity discipleship is different than just reporting donor levels.”

Chapelstreet is a 132-year-old church that had grown to 5,000+ attendees across multiple campuses. Aggregate reports weren’t enough. Staff needed to see individual people, spot pastoral opportunities, and reach donors at the right moment in their giving journey.

Without a way to do that, certain things simply didn’t happen. First-time givers received an acknowledgment of their initial gift, but there was no follow-up to reinforce subsequent gifts or support giver retention. Lapsed givers weren’t flagged until they’d already drifted. Emerging donors went unnoticed. Trends that should have informed strategy sat buried in spreadsheets nobody had time to build.

“There was no tool I could identify that let me do donor analysis with any confidence,” Abe says, “or without spending hours in spreadsheets.”

The solution

After conversations with other executive pastors facing the same gap, Abe found MortarStone, a platform built to turn Pushpay’s giving data into ministry action. The combination addressed something neither product could solve alone. Pushpay captures every transaction. MortarStone surfaces every opportunity.

“There was a clear synergy,” Abe says. “We weren’t trying to force something that didn’t fit. MortarStone takes the data that already exists in Pushpay and turns it into usable information for our ministry team to better disciple and engage our church.”

From decision to go-live took four weeks. MortarStone’s team worked through Chapelstreet’s complex fund structure to make sure the data coming across was accurate.

The integration runs in the background while ministry happens in the foreground. When someone gives for the first time through Pushpay, MortarStone catches it and notifies the campus pastor. A personal thank-you goes out. A second gift adds that person to the lead pastor’s monthly communication list. By the third gift, Abe reaches out directly with a partnership welcome and giving resources.

None of this requires someone to pull a report.

“The tool sets up those triggers and lists so it’s seamless and continual, not a manual monthly process we have to remember,” Abe says. “It helps us pastor more intentionally versus having to pull static reports.”

MortarStone also flags lapsed givers early, before they’ve been gone long enough that a follow-up feels awkward. “Is there a pastoral issue? A family need?” Abe says. “We can get ahead of that instead of waiting until they’re further down the path.”

The results

Chapelstreet set an intentional goal of 10% year-over-year growth in first-time givers. They finished at 12.5%.

The budget forecasting capability proved its value in a way Abe didn’t anticipate. In 2024, Chapelstreet navigated a senior pastor transition. Rather than applying the same historical methodology to budget projections during a genuinely uncertain period, Abe used MortarStone’s forecasting tools against Chapelstreet’s actual giving history. “It saves time and we know it’s our data, not someone else’s benchmarks that may not be relevant to us.”

Day-to-day visibility changed how staff work. “I have the MortarStone tab open on my computer almost all the time,” Abe says. “Someone walks in and asks about a trend or donor pattern, I can pull it up instantly. That’s information we just weren’t able to provide before.”

The church is also using the integration to identify and encourage younger donors earlier in their generosity journey. As a multi-generational congregation, Chapelstreet wants to cultivate generosity across age groups, not just among established givers. MortarStone makes that visible in a way aggregate reports never could.

When asked whether the integration saves time, Abe gives an honest answer: “It hasn’t saved us a ton of time, but we weren’t doing this before.”

That’s the point. MortarStone and Pushpay together didn’t speed up something that already existed. They made an entirely new ministry motion possible.

“What this allowed us to do is actually create a donor engagement and development plan and implement it,” Abe says. “We weren’t engaging in real intentional discipleship or strategic donor development before. We’d do giving statements annually or semi-annually, but that was it.”

His advice to other churches considering the integration: “While it feels like one more thing, this has been one of the greatest returns on investment in effort, energy, and value to our staff, church family, and ultimately the kingdom. I’d encourage churches to at least explore what it might mean for them.”

Implementation note

Integration live: June 2022

Time from decision to go-live: 4 weeks

Setup experience: MortarStone’s team guided data configuration, including fund structure accuracy across Chapelstreet’s multi-campus setup

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